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History01.gif (675086 bytes) Coldwrap - the name shared by the refrigerated container and a Californian-based food corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sea Containers Inc - was introduced to the public with an advertisement that asked: "What if a container could provide precise, total control of refrigerated shipments, over any distance, at any temperature?" and went on to answer: "It would open up the possibility of distant new mass markets for delicate perishables . . . [and] . . . would virtually erase the 20 per cent spoilage that is accepted for perishable shipments via old type cold containers."

Well, this was prescience indeed!  And subsequent developments and events proved - perhaps for the first time, but certainly not the last - that Sea Containers was in the vanguard of innovative design in the area of containerisation.
History04.gif (183816 bytes) In 1965 the ISO freight container started to become widely seen in Europe.  A forwarding agent named Alltransport Ltd agreed to act as agent for Sea Containers and, via its shipping and forwarding connections, arrange the leasing, rental and redeliveries of containers.  In order to gain experience of the use of containers in the short sea trades, to persuade the conservative and conventional shipowners that they would disregard the advent of containers at the peril of their balance sheets, and to provide a market for its own containers, Sea Containers formed a consortium with Alltransport (as marketing agents), the Nordstrom interests in Finland (as ship operators and management services).  Sea Containers role lay in the provision of the containers. The photograph shows a typical container crane of the period - capable of lifting three or four containers an hour.  The shipping line was called Containerships Ltd.
History03.gif (117718 bytes) This picture shows the first of the "dedicated" container ships chartered-in and operated by Containerships Ltd.  Prior to this the line had been using converted open hold, break-bulk vessels, and Line Manager, Veli Nordstrom, used to delight in stowing containers in every last centimetre of space - using the mini-containers (the 6.7s) in the combings.  Despite this intelligent use of the available space, changes of vessel, changes of schedule, introduction and removal of different ports of call, the line could not make a sustained profit.  But Sea Containers gained a tremendous amount of experience, all of which stood it in good stead when planning container, crane and ship developments subsequently.